Mexican people in rural areas have got economic problems but are rejecting the government’s supposed solution. Its mega-projects are disrupting communities and making them dependent on international markets, big business and national politics. Bici-maquinas are part of a movement that keeps local people in control of their own livelihoods and communities.

Carlos is pushing down on the pedals of a blender-bike-machine on his way to making a refreshing mango-orange shake. Here at the Maya-Pedal workshop in the southern Guatemalan city of San Andrés Itzapa, they are constructing bicycles with a wide range of functions such as mixing juices, grinding coffee, washing clothes, pumping water, and generating electricity. The principle is very simple: if you are able to use the strength of your body for a means of transport, why not harness this energy for a wider range of possibilities?

Next door in Mexico, the government is pushing forward with centralized mega-projects such as dams that generate income for the government but offer little to rural communities where electricity tariffs are high and electricity networks are dilapidated. These mega-projects have given rise to the birth of new resistance groups. In the southern state of Chiapas, for example, 400,000 people out of a million residents are refusing to pay for electricity. Many are organised in a campaign against the government’s machinations, while others simply can’t afford to pay their bills. One response has been to train a network of independent electricians, who in turn are able to give workshops about reconnecting communities to electricity.

Another response can be seen through the group La Cacita that is building bike-machines in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. In resisting the government’s mega-projects, they want to strengthen the autonomy of people in rural indigenous and smallholding-farmer-communities. One of their solutions is to use bici-maquinas to replace tools like corn-moulders, which are worked by hand. The activists of La Cacita point out that the leg muscles are five times stronger than arm muscles. The speeding-up and simplification of daily routines are especially improving the situation of women, who live in villages often characterized by traditional structures. The immense saving of time, which the machines are making possible, for example for the preparation of tortillas, is giving women a basis to organise themselves politically and to push forward the concept of „bien vivir“ (a good life) in their day-to-day life.

The idea of the machines is spreading rapidly. Besides La Cacita in Oaxaca and Maya-Pedal in South-Guatemala, new collectives have been started in Chiapas and Tapachula, with three new projects in Mexico City, experimenting with the use of the bike-machines in an urban environment. All the projects have in common that they are following the principle of popular education: building a bike-machine always goes hand in hand with teaching others how to do the same. Carlos from Maya-Pedal tells us that when a new machine is created or someone decides to ride a bike instead of driving a car, it’s a step towards una nueva vida“ (a new life).

The latest cargo bike is the C-Type Cargo Bicycle by Sanitov that fuses Chinese and Scandinavian bicycle design. It comes with a battery-driven engine and a GPS tracker system to log your miles and help locate the bike if it’s stolen. The stylish bike appeared in the 2010 London Design Festival last fall.

Sanitov says its mission is to “provide mobility to the urban dweller at low costs for the health, the heart and the environment. The website doesn’t include the cost. (http://www.sanitov.com/)

To see a video they’ve made showing bicycling as a much better way to get around London than the underground, driving or walking, go to: http://www.sanitovstudio.com/

Ecocabs is the name given to traditional Indian rickshaw operations that are organized into a network and can be called directly by customers. Fazilka is an Indian border town with a population of less than 100 000 inhabitants. It is the first city in the world to have a dial-a-rickshaw facility.

Mahatma Gandhi once said “I would prize every invention of science made for the benefit of all.” Embracing Mahatma’s idea of “doing more, for less, for more”, the town of Fazilka has given something innovative to this world. “Ecocabs” are a low cost solution to one of the key transport dilemmas in any urban area.

Cycle rickshaws have been a feature of Indian cities for nearly a century. They are fast and eco-friendly, but it is not always easy to get one when you need. So as the pace of city life and the size has increased, there has been a shift toward taking motorized transport, including private cars, even for relatively short journeys, contributing to congestion, pollution and risk on the roads. The Ecocabs scheme, on the other hand, allows people to phone rickshaw drivers to direct them where they are needed. The upshot is that customers can rely on getting their ride in no more than 10 minutes. The concept has been promoted as dial-a-rickshaw.

With an order of the honorable Punjab & Haryana High Court, the concept which originated in Fazilka two years ago has been fully adopted by both the Punjab and Haryana governments. After a news item on the Fazilka scheme appeared in the Indian Express, petitions were targeted at the Punjab and Haryana Governments, asking “if such eco friendly rickshaws can be implemented in Fazilka, why not in the rest of both states?”. A recent order by the Haryana Government to its local body department has made this possible. Now more than half a million rickshaw families are going to get the benefit of being transformed into Ecocabs. A small initiative is adding up to big results. To make it even more popular, the GWAF (Graduates Welfare Association Fazilka) has made a dedicated website for the ecocabs, which will contain all the technical information on them as well as instructions on how to start an Ecocab-Dial-a-Rickshaw scheme in other towns and cities (www.ecocabs.org). Letters from the Principal Secretary and Financial Commissioner of Haryana have also requested the association to provide the technical know how of Fazilka Ecocabs to the Haryana authorities so that the scheme can be implemented there as well as soon as possible.

It is important to note here that the Punjab Government through the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board and District Administration of Amritsar has already implemented Ecocabs in the holy city of Amritsar and subsequently in Patiala, where a local NGO, the Patiala Foundation, has already implemented the same concept under the name “Green Cabs”. This year Punjab exhibited Ecocabs as a sustainable mode of transport in its pavilion during the International Trade Fair, 2010 held in November at Pragati Maidan, Delhi and state received overall silver medal.

A model to generate additional revenue for rickshaw drivers has already been worked out and will be implemented soon. The legalities with telecom partner have already been completed and free telephones are available for the world’s first dial-a-rickshaw service, which are now paid. Ecocabs operations at 7 new Ecocab call centers in Fazilka. The other welfare schemes which are in place at Fazilka for Ecocab operations are: free winter wear & woolens, free medical consultation by all leading private hospitals and doctors, medicine from the three authorized medical stores and laboratory at discounted prices, free medicines and free required laboratory tests, free legal aid by four leading lawyers, permanent Ecocab stands by the Municipal Council of Fazilka in various zones of Fazilka and computer education for a few educated rickshaw drivers by two computer centers in Fazilka.

Welcome to the future! Born in Holland, the country of bicycles and tulips, this is the hottest gadget on the market for parents. The Taga, classed as a “multifunctional urban vehicle”, has been designed to suit the demands of modern parents for a healthy and green lifestyle. The enticing urban vehicle is eye candy for every parent who leads a sustainable life.

While Taga isn’t the first pedal-powered vehicle with space to load up the kiddies, this urban family bicycle is claimed to be safer, more cost-effective, more manoeuvrable and convenient, as well as more fun for riding with children than a traditional bicycle. It’s actually a little like a “transformer” that can be converted from child-carrying tricycle to stroller in 20 seconds flat, so it adds a few new levels of convenience to the way you move your offspring around. Unfortunately the only thing that seems to be missing from these “safer” bikes in the promotional photos are the safety helmets themselves!

]]>http://carbusters.org/2010/06/28/futuristic-buggies/feed/31435Students on your Bike!http://carbusters.org/2010/06/20/students-on-your-bike/
http://carbusters.org/2010/06/20/students-on-your-bike/#respondSun, 20 Jun 2010 14:25:28 +0000http://carbusters.org/?p=1438Here’s something to help get the average lazy student out of bed and onto eco-friendly transportation: having a folding bike in the house. Dahon, a producer of folding bikes, has teamed up with the UK’s “Hive” student residence project, offering each apartment a Dahon Speed D7 folding bicycle to address the transport needs of residents. Hive ordered 425 bikes for its first two state-of-the-art student residences, which are scheduled to open in central London in September 2009.

The offer to lease eco-friendly urban transportation in the form of a folding bicycle complements the design of the Hive apartments themselves. The buildings come with a number of features to help reduce CO2 emissions, including grass roofs and a bio-mass boiler that heats the building by burning recycled wood chips.

]]>http://carbusters.org/2010/06/20/students-on-your-bike/feed/01438Colouring the pavementshttp://carbusters.org/2010/04/26/colouring-the-pavements/
http://carbusters.org/2010/04/26/colouring-the-pavements/#commentsMon, 26 Apr 2010 08:50:37 +0000http://carbusters.org/?p=1368Studio Gelardi, a sustainable product design and engineering firm based in New York, USA, invented an interesting tool for developing bicycle communities last year. The “Contrail” is a concept bicycle device that you can fix above the wheel of your bike and that covers the bicycle wheel with a coloured layer of chalk.

The purpose is to provide a better feeling of safety and community to bikers by leaving a mark on the road. Using this device, bicyclists leave a coloured track behind them, allowing other bikers to see where is safe to ride. More bikers taking the same trail, stronger the route will appear on the road – reminding cyclists and also cars drivers that the street is a place shared by different users.

]]>http://carbusters.org/2010/04/26/colouring-the-pavements/feed/21368Bamboo Bikes for Africahttp://carbusters.org/2010/04/22/bamboo-bikes-for-africa/
http://carbusters.org/2010/04/22/bamboo-bikes-for-africa/#respondThu, 22 Apr 2010 11:06:05 +0000http://carbusters.org/?p=1371The Bamboo Bike began as a small project in 1995 by Craig Calfee and has evolved into assisting entrepreneurs in the developing world to make their own bicycles out of locally sourced bamboo.

Bamboo bicycles are now produced in Ghana, West Africa, and soon in other African countries. Bicycles are in great demand as a major labour saving device; making daily tasks such as transporting food and water six times more efficient than on foot. In Africa, Bamboo is easy to grow and can be cultivated in dry areas with minimal irrigation, and does not need to be imported as a raw material. So the Bamboo bike has become popular because it costs less to manifacture than to import steel bikes, as they do not require electricity or a large investment in equipment. Although they require a significant amount of labour to produce, this provides skilled employment and apprenticeship opportunities for young people.

High unemployment rates and the lack of cost-effective transportation are two persistent problems in developing countries. “Bamboosero”, emerging from the bamboo bike project, aims for sustainable development project and long term growth. The goal is to enable entrepreneurs in developing countries to start their own bamboo bicycle manufacturing businesses.

]]>http://carbusters.org/2010/04/22/bamboo-bikes-for-africa/feed/01371Shoe-Free Transportationhttp://carbusters.org/2010/03/01/shoe-free-transportation/
http://carbusters.org/2010/03/01/shoe-free-transportation/#respondMon, 01 Mar 2010 15:01:05 +0000http://carbusters.org/?p=1301Have a look at this strange construction. Is it a new fashionable toy for the urban citizen, lacking nature, a new method of generating green energy or a demonstration to protest against experiments on animals in cosmetic factories?

Not at all, this is a creation designed in 2006 by a group of students from Dalhousie School of Architecture in Halifax, Canada. The students found this funny way to protest against the lack of green spaces in their city.

This hamster grass wheel for humans is indeed a good provocation to ask for more green spaces, but can also evoke interesting questions about our lack of time to enjoy them. Should we all be carrying a piece of grass with us to take profit of it? This may be needed in our modern cities where concrete, cars and speed are three fundamental ingredients of its grey alchemy.

]]>http://carbusters.org/2010/03/01/shoe-free-transportation/feed/01301Walk This Wayhttp://carbusters.org/2009/11/18/walk-this-way/
http://carbusters.org/2009/11/18/walk-this-way/#respondWed, 18 Nov 2009 16:13:25 +0000http://carbusters.org/?p=792It’s healthy, green and in fashion. Just how walkable is your neighbourhood? Walk Score helps people live a carfree lifestyle by measuring how walkable a place is – not just how pretty the area is for walking. The Walk Score uses data and mapping from Google Maps to provide coverage of the walkability of any address in the world. Although it only gives an approximation of walkability, Walk Score is still a useful tool to motivate people to get out and walk.

Walk Score shows amenities within walking distance – such as restaurants, shops, parks, schools or libraries – and awards points depending on the closeness of the amenity, with the most points awarded for those within 0.4 Km. Locations are scored within a range of 0 and 100: from the “Walkers’ Paradise” where most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car, to the “Car-Dependent” where there is virtually no neighbourhood destinations within walking range – the only place you can walk is from your house to your car. Perhaps it’s time to move!